Posted on 12/08/2010 3:12:39 AM PST by Swordmaker
PC or Mac? It's the longest-running question in personal technology — along with the Mac itself, the debate turns 27 next month — and probably the most contentious one. A small but noisy percentage of computer owners consist of people who aren't content to pick a computing platform and leave it at that. Instead, they question the IQ and/or taste of anyone who makes a buying decision different from their own. Hence the classic stereotypes: the Windows user as a clueless sucker for punishment, and the Mac fan as a spendthrift fetishist. (Apple has fanned the flames with PC-bashing ads for years, and Microsoft has gotten snarky about Macs in some recent commercials.)
In the spirit of the holiday season, I'd like to propose a truce. Most folks who buy computers are neither bozos nor cultists. They're smart consumers who know what's important to them, do their research and choose accordingly. Or they refuse to take sides. (Some of the happiest households I know, including my own, contain both Windows PCs and Macs.)
Some of you already know which type of computer your next machine will be. That's fine. This column is for those of you who are still mulling over both options as you shop for a holiday PC or think about a system you'll buy next year. The single most important point of differentiation between the platforms is a simple one. Apple has a clear vision of what a personal computer should be and expresses it in a few highly refined variations. Meanwhile, the companies that make Windows PCs — and there are gazillions of 'em — offer something for everyone.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Coke vs. Pepsi.
RC Cola!
Windows 7 runs great on my three computers. I’m not held hostage by those Cupertino ganstas. Anyone who has more money than they know what to do with.... Go donate to those robbers so you can feel good. I don’t need a Mac to feel good. I bought a bigass LCD monitor (Acer) last Christmas and that was nice enough
This Christmas season I have steered two people to good buys on laptops that are much better values than any Macbook. One got a Toshiba at BestBuy for $299. 15” laptop. Celeron processor but it will do just what she wants. Websurfing and email. Why on earth would she buy a Macbook when their cheapest laptop is an insulting 13.3” and goes for $1000?
Next friend got a 17” HP laptop w i3 core processor/4gb memory for $550. With HDMI out to hook up his external monitor. He has no need for fancy schmancy Apple equipment. $2200 is what those gangstas extort for a 17” macbook.... A sucker is born every day!
Your HP to Apple MacBook Pro is comparing a low end laptop to a professional grade computer... and the specs do not compare.
Your friend's $550 Hewlett Packard 17.3" laptop has: 1600x900 LED; Intel Dual-Core i3-370M Dual-Core processor with 3MB shared L3 cache @ 2.4GHz; Intel integrated HD shared graphics; 4GB RAM; 500GB HDD; DVD burner; 802.11n; Windows 7 Home Premium; HDMI; Plastic case. Standard power supply; Five Hour Maximum battery life.
The Apple 17" laptop has: 1920 by 1200 LED LPI 179º viewing angle LCD full 1080p capable HD screen; Intel Core i5-540M processor with 3MB shared L3 cache @ 2.53GHz; NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR3 and Intel HD Graphics with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory6 Automatic graphics switching for low energy usage; 4GB RAM; 500GB HDD; DVD burner; 802.11b,g,n; mini Display Port (supports HDMI, DVI, VGA with adaptors); Machined Aluminum monoblock case.MagSafe power supply; Nine Hour Maximum battery life.
None of those differences are CHEAP... like you think everyone has to be.
I have a client who HAS one of those cheap 17" HPs... with Windows7 Home Premium... and it has decided to no longer see the external hard drives she has her back up files on... or her Flash Drives... or her GPS.. but it sees her digital camera fine. None of the recommended fixes work... nice. She is NOT a happy camper. The computer SEES the hard drive as there... the Trend Micro AV will even scan it... but Windows7 REFUSES to assign anything plugged in to the USB port a drive letter. I've tried the three standard fixes for this apparently common problem that hits randomly in Windows 7. I wasted four hours last night trying to get her HP 17 to see her backup hard drive to get a file back for her. Two hours of those were talking to HP tech support. Going back to a Restore Point before the problem started DID NOT solve the problem.
HP's and Microsoft's solution? Reinstall Windows7. ARRRGGGHHH!
False comparison because my friend does not need all the “extras” Apple has larded onto its $2200 17” laptop. So he
will pass on that and I’m sure his HP/17.3”/$550 will turn out just fine
Disable in BIOS the option Memory Hole Remapping, it should get the USB drives working again.
BTW, I got the new drive for the Mac Book today, I’m not sure I’m going to try to replace it tonight, I spent the day cutting firewood and my hands are a little shaky. I’ve looked at instructions at iFixit and it looks like it won’t be too hard.
My wife just reminded me to ask you about her Mac locking up. When the kids get home from school, they hit facebook and youtube. When she gets home she says there is frequently a spinning beach ball and she can’t get it to respond and she has to do a hard reboot. Does that sound like anything familiar?
Well, the thread was civil for 42 posts. I enjoyed it while it lasted...
Sounds like a Safari lockup to me. In my experience, those are usually caused by running something online in Flash.
If the Apple menu -- or Finder in the Dock -- will respond, try Force Quit; it probably will show Safari as "not responding". Force Quitting and restarting Safari always works for me...
Except for major installations, I don't think I have EVER had to re-boot my 17" MBP. In fact, it runs for months on end -- using the" Sleep" command when I'm not using it (which, my wife will tell you, is all too seldom)... '-)
Kids are amazingly hard on computers.
It would make sense that there is a flash problem, she is usually telling them to stay off youtube because it seems to be what is locking up her computer.
Safari is also frequently warning her that she is working off line. Every other device in the house is talking to the network. If she waits for a few minutes, it will find the network again, just odd.
The Mac has made Windows remarkably more stable. I used to have a sacrificial goat system. Basically an old beater computer that they used, I would restore image every couple of months because they would collect a huge assortment of bad cookies and crapware from sites that cater to kids. Now they do all of that stuff on the Mac, the sacrificial system hasn’t needed tending in months. They haven’t touched my computer in two years. I haven’t had to clean out the start menu, no warnings when the virus software runs, no slowdowns. OSX makes Win 7 much more stable.
Not only that, but they are terrible bandwidth hogs. My satellite ISP (WildBlue) throttled my bandwidth back to dialup speeds recently -- because I had gone a couple of MB over my cumulative monthly download limit. (I typically run at ~1/3 of that usage level.)
I looked at the ISP's usage plots -- and the usage spikes correlated perfectly with the times when my granddaughter was home with her school-issued laptop. I disabled WiFi on it -- and the problem was solved.
...with a hole punched in the bottle top with an icepick! '-)
Thanks Doc... But that's one of the three known solutions... been there, done that, got the T shirt... No joy.
As soon as my client's machine finishes doing a backup to the cloud, we're gonna do the nuclear solution suggested by Microsoft: wipe the HD and reinstall Windows7 and restore her data after reinstalling all the software.
I repeat my earlier comment: "AARRRGGGHHHH!!!"
When she has the SBBOD (Spinning Beach Ball of Death), if she clicks on any part of the desktop, does the SBBOD go away, only to return when she clicks again on a Safari window? If so, it is only Safari that is locked up and a hard reboot is unnecessary. Most likely Flash Player is misbehaving on YouTube... again. FlashPlayer accounts for almost 70% of all application crashes on Macs by not properly freeing up resources.
The SBBOD should never require a hard restart, if you see it, the system is running but an application is busy. Just move the pointer and click on another app such as the Finder. That will bring you back to a normal pointer for THAT app.
Mrs. Doc merely needs to force Safari to quit. She can do this by pressing CMD-OPT-ESC which will bring up the Force Quit utility pane with a list of running Apps. Most likely she will see Safari listed as not responding. Have her highlight it and the click "Force Quit" and confirm that choice on the pop-up dialog box. Alternately, she can select "Force Quit" under the Apple menu or from the Safari dock icon...
You know, when all is said and done, I enjoyed working on HP-3000 minicomputers more than anything else. A series 70 could heat your house.
Windows at work and I got a MacBookPro recently for personal stuff. The more I get used to the Mac, the more I like it. I have word and excel on the Mac, haven’t spent too much time of getting to know numbers yet. Overall The Mac is better.
Converted from Wintel to Mac three years ago on most all hardware.
We currently own:
MacPro running Windows XP in VMWare Fusion. Windows has only crashed once (catastrophically) but since the whole Windows operating system was just one file on the Mac, I just used the Time Machine back up software to retrieve a copy from the previous day and, voila, we we up and running in minutes.
iMac number one is our home computer. Kids use it to do homework. It is also our base repository for music, photos, etc.
iMac number two is mounted to the wall of my showroom. We use it to surf the web with clients and proof artwork.
MacBook Pro is being used by my son in his freshman year at college. He has remarked how easy it is for him to use WiFi hotspots that his friends have trouble logging on to with their Windows laptops.
Now for the Windows Machines...
A five year old Dell laptop with a dead battery, dead pixels on the screen, balky USB ports and a tendency to overheat. We use it for internet access and to play Civ IV.
A five year old Toshiba laptop with no hard drive space (even though all “unneeded” files have been removed) that we suspect is infected with something that we haven’t been able to remove.
A three year old home built system running XP used in production because our production software will not be supported by the manufacturer if run on a Mac (even if in emulation).
A home built system hooked up to our TV running XP so we can access Netflix and Hulu.
Overall impressions:
The Mac systems need no ongoing maintenance. I haven’t had to defrag, or scan for viruses or malware. They do what we need them to do without any weirdness.
The PC systems are problem children. USB ports are flakey. They need to be defragged. They need more updates installed. They need anti-virus and anti-malware scans and updates constantly. I need to run registry checks on them periodically. My kids visit the wrong web site looking for cheat codes for their game and there goes my weekend.
After almost 28 years of working with computers, I am convinced that while Macs are more expensive up front, they are BY FAR more economical in the long term, especially when you take into consideration the cost of ongoing maintenance.
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